Indhu Rubasingham’s National Theatre
THE National Theatre ain’t broke, so I wouldn’t fix it.
Anyway, Indhu Rubasingham has today announced her inaugural season at the National Theatre. First up: Ballet Shoes will be returning to the Olivier this Christmas.
The artistic director of the National Theatre must do far more than programme three stages and occasionally put in 100-hour weeks.
They must steer the organisation itself—and, by extension, the wider industry—through a fragmented landscape.
Evidently, it’s a role that demands not only nerve, vision, and unshakable resolve but a deep understanding of what the word “national” truly means in today’s fractured Britain.
With an annual public subsidy of around £16.2 million, its burden—and its brief—is to be everything to everyone. That scale of responsibility becomes all the more weighty when placed against the stark backdrop of regional funding disparities now laid bare.
Is the National truly national enough?
It’s a timely question, especially in light of recent research from the BBC, which reveals a sharp contraction in the UK’s subsidised theatre sector. A 2024 survey found that the 40 best-funded producing theatres staged just 229 original productions—a 31% drop from 332 in 2014.
These findings echo a 2023 report by Data Culture Change, showing a 37% decline in self-produced performances across ten major producing theatres in England and Scotland during the same decade.
It is reassuring to see Hull-based Middle Childand Barnsley’s Lung have been named the first companies in residence under a new initiative.
Enter Indhu Rubasingham, the seventh artistic director of the National Theatre, and the first woman—and first person of colour—to hold the post. She follows in the footsteps of Laurence Olivier, Peter Hall, Richard Eyre, Trevor Nunn, Nicholas Hytner, and Rufus Norris.
Rubasingham is characteristically reluctant to centre her identity in public discourse.
She prefers to lead as an artist first, with a focus on excellence, tenacity, and broadening theatre’s reach—not box-ticking. “I’ve always felt better equipped to express my thoughts through the work itself,” she says. Her promise is simple but pointed: to “appeal to as many people as possible. Audiences like a good story, well told—and that’s true whether you’re at the Kiln or the National.”
Her work on the National’s own stages has also paved her way. From Stephen Adly Guirgis’s The Motherfucker with the Hat (2015) to Anupama Chandrasekhar’s The Father and the Assassin (2022), she has demonstrated the rare ability to balance critical acclaim with popular appeal—a vital skill.
Meanwhile, Rubasingham’s new leadership team signals her artistic intent. Director Miranda Cromwell, playwright Lynn Nottage, and academic Sophie Duncan join as artistic associates alongside Clint Dyer, who stays on. Robert Hastie, former artistic director of Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, will serve as her deputy.
But the challenges are formidable.
Startlingly, both Peter Hall and Richard Eyre in their diaries admit to being forced to thoughts of suicide by the pressures of the top job, describing it as “three-dimensional chess in the dark” and like having a gun pointed at their head.
And Sir Nicholas Hytner, for his part, recently noted that “the challenges are much more extreme now. Funding has been drastically reduced. The National, like everyone else, must devote a large portion of its resources to education, outreach, and community work—essential and good, but Arts Council England (ACE) seems far less interested in artists than it once was.”
After sixty-two years, the National Theatre remains a work in progress—shaped by economics, shifting cultural tides, and the strengths and flaws of those who lead it.
Rubasingham’s first season suggests she understands the brief: relevance, reach, and rigour. This includes expanding the global audience for National Theatre at Home, a £9.99 per month streaming service for productions that insiders hope to make into a “Netflix for theatre”.
The season of work features 16 brand new productions, including a return to repertory theatre for the first time since 2020.
Rubasingham will direct a rap adaptation of Bacchae herself. This reimagining of the Euripides drama is the work of first-time playwright Nima Taleghani. Paul Mescal will appear in two classic 20th Century plays – Death of a Salesman and A Whistle in the Dark.
A new musical adaptation of Pride, based on the acclaimed 2014 film, is being staged by P&P Productions in collaboration with the National Theatre, with performances scheduled in London and at Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre.
Elsewhere, a new collaboration between the theatre and rap artist Stormzy was also announced, but details have not yet been revealed. And a family production of The Jungle Book and Hamlet.
She has already, however, proven that she can redefine a theatre. Now she must help redefine a national stage.
As Laurence Olivier, the National’s founding director, once said, the theatre’s purpose is simple: “To make the audience applaud.”
Needless to say, applause isn’t just symbolic—it’s financial. But no national theatre can ever meet all expectations.
It is ticket sales that largely pay for the productions, and therefore the National are under pressure (as commercial theatres are) to be popular if they are not to dwindle.
I have high hopes for Indhu’s tenure – may she walk the walk, swerve the culture wars and above all stay serene.
